India has initiated a plan to abolish 62 cantonments around the country in order to convert them into “exclusive military stations”, it emerged on Wednesday.
The Times of India reported on Monday that the plan was to carve out the military areas in all cantonments and convert them into “exclusive military stations” with the Indian army exercising “absolute control” over them.
The publication went on to say that the civilian areas would be merged with local municipalities, which would then be responsible for their maintenance.
“The process will be faster in cantonments where demarcation between civil and military areas is easy. Others will take time,” the report quoted an unnamed official as saying.
Meanwhile, the Hindustan Times reported on Monday that the first cantonment to be renamed a military station was Yol in India’s northern Himachal Pradesh state, with Secunderabad in Telangana and Nasirabad in Rajasthan among the cantonments set to shrink.
However, the report said that not all cantonments were likely to become military stations.—HT
